Comment Mounted Border Patrol agents who confronted Haitian families last September on the banks of a river in Del Rio, Texas, did not hit the migrants with their reins but used “unnecessary” force and lacked proper guidance from supervisors, according to with a long-awaited internal report released on Friday. Images of the incident widely circulated along the Rio Grande showed US agents waving reins and shouting profanities as they briefly tried to block families bringing food to a sprawling, chaotic encampment where 15,000 migrants seeking entry to the United States had arrived. Photos and video of the confrontation drew angry condemnation from President Biden and Democrats, who said the agents whipped the immigrants, likening the scene to brutal images of American slavery. Biden said the immigrants were “tied up” and punishment would be imposed after a swift investigation. After nearly nine months, the Office of Professional Responsibility at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which serves as the agency’s internal affairs arm, determined in a 511-page report that no immigrants were beaten or denied their legal right to seek asylum. in the United States . But the report found that the agents used unnecessary force and their decision to help Texas troopers stop the immigrants conflicted with the Border Patrol’s goals. The internal report found “failures at multiple levels of the agency, a lack of appropriate policies and training, and unprofessional and dangerous behavior by many individual agents,” CBP said in a statement. Federal prosecutors looking into the incident announced in March that they would not pursue criminal charges. The internal report issued Friday did not make specific recommendations for punishment. Its findings have been sent to a CBP disciplinary review board, and a senior agency official will determine what, if any, sanctions the agents will face, CBP officials told reporters Friday. The agents were reassigned to administrative duties after the incident. Biden condemned the agents last year amid public outcry at the scene of horses carrying families and small children running off the road. “What you saw is horrible. It’s outrageous to see people like that, on horses, being passed by, people being tied up with harnesses, it’s outrageous,” Biden said at the time. “These people will pay,” he said, referring to the agents. “An investigation is currently underway and there will be consequences.” Vice President Kamala Harris echoed those comments in an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” saying the scenes “evoked images of some of the worst moments in our history where this kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country. was used against African Americans during times of slavery.” The video did not show anyone being hit, but some agents acted in ways that were not consistent with official behavior. In one incident recorded by Al Jazeera and widely circulated on social media, an agent confronted a man whose family was transporting goods, shouting “Hey! This is why your country sucks! Use your wives for this!’ The agent who used “derogatory and vulgar” language also endangered the safety of a child with his horse, according to the report. CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus told reporters that the statements by Biden and Harris do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. “I don’t believe there were any issues with outside influence,” said Magnus, who said he told investigators to ignore “anything they heard outside of their job.” The incident came at a time of significant pressure for the Border Patrol. Over the course of several weeks, thousands of migrants, mostly from Haiti, crossed the Rio Grande, camping under a border bridge and building makeshift brush shelters. As the water in the camp ran out, migrants and vendors began crossing back and forth to Mexico for supplies, which the Border Patrol allowed. Migrants arriving at the camp were issued colored paper tickets to indicate when they arrived, and families crossing back and forth into Mexico for supplies tried to show agents on horseback their tickets as they passed. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), a fierce critic of Biden’s immigration policies, had asked Department of Public Safety troopers to block off a different crossing point along the river by parking their vehicles. Border Patrol officials agreed with that decision because the crossing point — through a spillway with dangerous currents — was a site of drownings, officials said. On September 19, as migrants bathing in the Rio Grande tried to re-enter from Mexico at a boat ramp area, Texas state troopers tried to stop them. Mounted Border Patrol agents had been told to help state troopers and when they asked a supervisor for guidance, they were told to help, according to the report. In fact, that’s not what Border Patrol supervisors wanted after finding that the agency couldn’t adequately supply the camp and that migrants would have to be temporarily allowed to cross back and forth to Mexico for provisions, according to the report. The horse patrol agents gave “inconsistent responses” to investigators’ questions about whether the aggressive manner in which they shook their reins was consistent with CBP training, according to the report. They also gave uneven answers to questions about their preparation for events and crowd control operations, it said. CBP officials who briefed reporters on the findings said many other agents in Del Rio performed admirably under extreme pressure. “There is no excuse for the actions of some of our staff, including unprofessional and deeply offensive behaviour,” Magnus said. “Unfortunately this incident overshadowed the incredible humanitarian and law enforcement efforts of our agents in Del Rio last September.” Del Rio’s crisis ended after the Biden administration began flying many of the migrants from the camp back to Haiti as part of the administration’s Title 42 public health policy tied to the pandemic. Some asylum seekers were released to the United States, but thousands more returned to Mexico to avoid swift deportation to their devastated homeland. Most of the migrants from the Del Rio camp have been sent to Haiti or returned to Mexico, according to DHS data The September 19 clash on the riverbanks occurred on what officials described as the most difficult day of the episode, when crowds were largest, supplies low and tensions high. CBP’s disciplinary review board recommended sanctions for four agents, according to the statement. Possible punishments for the agents could range from unpaid suspensions to a less severe “letter of reprimand” noting the misconduct, according to former CBP officials familiar with the agency’s disciplinary process. Rep. John Katko (R-New York), the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee, blasted the report’s findings and blamed Biden for the incident. “This report is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the Biden administration to justify its initial rush to judge that these Border Patrol agents were guilty of misconduct,” Katko said in a statement. “So they set out on a mission to save face and make an example of these Border Patrol agents, who were just trying to manage the overwhelming humanitarian and security crisis that President Biden handed them,” he said. The Border Patrol union posted statements on Twitter Friday, denouncing the Biden administration for “rank hypocrisy” and calling the president, vice president and Undersecretary Majorca “liars.” The union’s top official did not respond to a request for comment, but is expected to dispute any proposed disciplinary action against the agents.
